Treat yourself to a tasty journey back in time through Istanbul’s historic Old City and the backstreets surrounding the iconic Grand Bazaar. You will discover the neighbourhood’s best eateries and dine where the locals do. Ignite your tastebuds with foods cooked by the masters, following generations-old recipes.
You’ll make more than 8 different stops during your foodie walk, with a variety of samples at each: starting with Turkish breakfast and street foods, to famous Turkish kebabs and desserts cooked over a wood fire. Flavours of the Old City is your chance to immerse yourself inside Istanbul’s historic food scene and acquaint yourself with Turkish culture and habits.
COVID-19 UPDATE: We are currently unable to operate this tour due to the latest COVID-19 restrictions in place in Turkey.
Tour Details
Tour Schedule:
- The Flavours of the Old City tours depart daily at 09:30 am and are approximately 6-7 hours in duration. View tour calendar here.
Included:
- All food and drink along the tour, including bottled water as you need.
- A friendly, knowledgeable and passionate English-speaking tour guide.
- A day filled with culinary, cultural, historic and personal anecdotes, with a local’s insider view of Istanbul.
Group Size:
- COVID-19 Update: tour group size 2-5 people until 28th February, 2021.
- Tour group size 2-8 people after 1st March, 2021.
- We also cater for private groups.
Price:
- Adult: US$110
- Child (6-12): US$65
- Infant (0-5): Free
Cancellation Policy:
- Risk free 100% refund if you cancel 24-hours before tour start.
Tour Photos:
Meeting & Finishing Point:
- Flavours of the Old City tour explores Istanbul’s historic Old City, and we meet to begin our tour in the heart of Eminönü, close to Spice Market. The exact meeting point and detailed directions will be provided upon booking.
- This food tour finishes in Kadınlar Pazarı in Zeyrek. Your guide will help you to find a taxi back to your hotel or direct you towards Grand Bazaar (20 minutes walking distance).
What to Bring & Wear:
- An empty stomach and your appetite!
- Casual and comfortable shoes and clothing.
- Our tours depart rain or shine; if rain is forecast you might like to bring an umbrella for the short walking distances between food stops.
Tour Highlights
Tour Itinerary:
Your tour will start with you sitting down to a local market-style breakfast of foods you have sourced fresh from the market. You can take your time eating your kahvaltı and sipping your çay the way that Turks do.
Following your breakfast, you will start exploring some of the oldest streets in Istanbul, beginning at the Spice Market and embarking along your journey toward the Grand Bazaar. Along the way, we taste döner kebab and künefe, fresh off the traditional wood-fired barbeque and bound to be one of your favourites. Then, make a small rest stop for Turkish coffee inside a historic 300-year-old Ottoman Han.
Once we arrive at the Grand Bazaar, we will wander some of the area’s most authentic streets before climbing up to the impressive gardens of Süleymaniye Mosque. (Note: we do not enter inside the mosque) After enjoying the panoramic Bosphorus views from atop one of Istanbul’s seven hills, you will sit down to enjoy one of Turkey’s most traditional dishes at a 100-year-old restaurant.
You’ll feast your tastebuds on local favourites like kokoreç (we’ll tell you what that is later) and beyran çorbası from the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants adored by locals. As you wander the historic back streets, you’ll experience more than 15 different food tastings during your day.
Finally, your tour will finish amidst 1600-year-old Roman aqueducts with a traditional Anatolian-style lunch – prepared just the way central Anatolians have enjoyed it for generations. Immersing yourself into the authentic tastes of Turkey is sure to be one of the highlights of your trip and a memory to look back on for a long time.
A day spent exploring Flavours of the Old City is sure to surprise and delight your taste buds and unearth the local charms of Istanbul’s Old City.
FAQs:
Please note that there are some stairs and steep walking on our Flavours of the Old City tour. If climbing stairs is a problem for yourself or any of your guests, please do consider booking another of our tours.
The walking distance of our other tours is around 2-3kms over flat terrain. The pace is generally comfortable for everyone.
If you have any other mobility concerns, please advise us during the booking process so we can consider options with you. While at most of our food stops and restaurants we sit down at tables and chairs to enjoy our food, there are usually just 1-2 stops where we will eat standing up.
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- Bonus: Recipes for Tour Dishes